Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I've been close to the console when played and talked a bit with the old master organist, Hans Eckart Schlandt (now the main organist is his son Steffen Schlandt). This one is really hard on fingers - up to 400 grams for coupled manuals. Keys of other manual really 'move together on their own'.

Large pedal - Swell shuttersPedal to I couplerPedal to II couplerPedal to II/Octave coupler

It sounds really nice (mainly because it's freshly tuned ;-).Quite powerful with all stops on, esp. the reeds Posaune, Trompete and Hautbois.Also the Piffaro+Principal sounds exquisitely. If the effect is too strong, then Piffaro+Octave (no Principal) still beats more subtly.I've tested only very briefly, the manual I Mixture is shriller than I thought, and the manual II Quintaton and Nazard gentler than I thought.

The design seems a reduction to about half of the famous Black Church organ in Brasov (Kronstadt) from 1837. A Neo-baroque / Orgelbewegung -inspired design, but still with enough options to play more modern repertoire.

I listened to it carefully in a 'cameral'+vocal Christmas recital. At first only the Flauto a camino was used, it was so mild it could be barely heard near 2 acoustic violins. Organist didn't want to use 2' or Sesquialtera not to 'mark' too much the sound among the others.

Its full organ is a decent enough 'principal choir' of a normal-sized organ, impressive enough for a Wedding March. Still swamped by 8 violins + 2 cellos + 32 people mixed choir.

The young local organist was really nice to demonstrate the capabilities of this organ. Quite mistuned now (church being not heated in winter, so it was us and the walls...). Attack was really delayed and slow-starting, but warmly resonant after.Thanks for the hospitality!

Also visited the St. Michael church of the German community. Organ was gently heard - 3 advanced students were practicing for a competition recital. Sturdy medieval door upstairs well locked with a medieval lock ;-)On the church floor there was a 4' movable organ, donation ~1700 to its village in Germany, re-donated to here in the 1990's. Artistic inscription in Gothic script praising God and its music.

The old installation played for the last time in March 2009 for a Haydn & Händel festival - with very limited stop selection (likely the others were unusable due to 'gaps' in certain keys, relays, valves etc). The console had brightly backlit color-coded stop flip-switches with original German names (I vaguely remember an Erzähler; now removed or maybe renamed) and several gaps - but I didn't take photos then. A very thick "cable snake" connected the console (movable a few meters) to a hole in the floor.

I transcribed the stop names as they are on the new rebuilt console. They are in Romanian, some are very funny/first-time litteral translations (Gemshorn > "Horn of black goat"). The "snake" is similar but thinner, likely digital coding.

Maybe someone more versed in big universal organ design can decode the meanings/uses of the 4 different manuals in this organ. I could not discern a classical design of Great/Swell/Echo etc.

The organ-spotting I tried is already done on a professional, officially financed scale. For now the database is open only to a few top organists each allocated a large 'area of interest', but they promise it will be public when the project ends. As official things go by here, I wouldn't hope an exact date."The Repertoire of Pipe Organs in Romania"http://www.monografia-orgilor.uvt.ro/NEW/login.php?lang=en

But I think amateur interest is still not worthless for a closer feedback of personal impressions, state of functioning/disrepair etc.

i'd love to volunteer to give Ursula a month off. She must be tired from her duties.

How I wish I could play these organs.

I second that.

So many instruments of this late-romantic style have been destroyed or altered during the course of the 20th century because they were not baroque and thus "unworthy". I find it therefore most admirable that such an instrument is still existant and in playable condition. Fortunately the value of those romantic organs is now being recognized again.

_________________________I have an ice cream. I cannot mail it, for it will melt.

... and for pneumatic-action lovers: do you really love that mechanism ? I quite disliked the delays. Electric is faster - except the same delays for pipes to start speaking. And both are on/off.But I agree that the timbre from higher pressures and many layered tones sounds greatly (when it's well tuned) and it's hard to do on purely mechanical action without being too heavy on fingers (like in the Brasov Black Church organ).

I also liked the crispness of the smallish new mechanical organ of the Conservatory. Didn't test exactly what the tracker action does to not be exactly ON/OFF and a pure AND logical gate between key and stop, like assisted mechanisms (pneumatic and electric) do. I mean, a stop pulled only partially should sound weaker, or with different timbre ? the position pattern in time of key attack and release matters too ? like in a piano, or differently ?

The Lutheran community of Saxon Germans having mostly migrated back to Germany, now the church was open at noon for the small Hungarian community of Unitarians. A Romanian organist played what looked like Bach on the sweet Flauta 8' alone. The Principal were too loud for the few people.And the low F key was ineffective on the Flauta this week ;-) Humidity in mechanism blamed.

We are planning to conduct a European tour of piano factories in 2011.Our thinking is to limit it to 3 piano factories and perhaps the Renner factory.

Because half the challenge is getting there (particularly for members outside Europe, like those of us in the U.S.) I thought we'd also visit some composer's homes and possibly Cathedrals. My friend Kathy and I both love architecture, particularly older buildings.

I hadn't really thought about combining pipe organs with the tour, but now I'm thinking that could be very interesting.

Of the notable piano factories which also make pipe organs (and parts for them):Rieger-Kloss in the Czech Republic makes the "Bohemia" piano and other brands, and also major civic organs, like that big Radio Hall organ here, and installed in many parts of East Europe. Chişinău in Moldova republic also has a Rieger-Kloss in the "Hall with Organ", a major element of civic cultural life.

On closer inspection, it is really an electronic organ with 1 rank of facade pipes as passive resonators - and to hide the 6 speakers behind ;-)A small label said 'Wyvern' and I searched and that's a prestigious UK classic-style-digital-organ company. It seems an older model, the closest currently made being the Wyvern Minuet:http://www.wyvernorgans.co.uk/product.asp?id=19The specification of the Swell is exactly as written there, the Great and Pedal are slightly different but broadly similar.

Playing was Florin Chiriacescu, one of the better organists of the few here, who was the titular of the large Radio Hall organ described above. He said to me that organ's repair may end 'in a month or so'...

It has a Kawai LH-1 "digital piano/organ" - more a fancy digital piano. (1 manual), 88 weighted keys, 3 piano-like pedals, 1 organ-like volume pedal. No note pedalboard.Factory documentation shows 2 piano and 5 organ voices (Soft strings, Mellow flutes 8'+4', Medium ensemble, Louder ensemble, Full ensemble - the last two with 16' component too) and a Bass coupler feature (doubling the lowest note played still one octave below).There is a version coming with 176 pre-programmed pieces for worship and a system of 'meter' easy play to reduce player skill neeeded ;-) while still allowing to synchronize e.g. with a choir.

Also good news! I've been allowed access to the Repertoire of Pipe Organs described above! 1038 organs are described with detail similar to dedicated amateur spotters ;-) Unfortunately, it's already a bit optimistic about the (non-)degradation of many organs, and most of the country outside Transylvania is close to an organ desert...

Bucuresti - Radio Hall organ (stoplist above)Finally I went to a concert, and confirmed (some of) it worked ;-)

It was a concert of the Radio Academic Choir (64 people, SATB, really crisply trained together). 17 pieces, of which 5 supported by piano (Yamaha grand) and 4 by organ. The organ was quite gently used, but I think for this concert as artistic decision, not as technical shortcoming. The tuning was really nice and tight!

- 2 Italian pieces: gentle trumpets mildly contrasting with the singers (that would be the Spanish Trumpets 8' and 4' ? or the Nachthorn 4' ?). Sounded quite much like real brass instruments, less sparkly, and nothing like that buzzy woody sound also known in the organ world as Trompete.- 19th century joyous Anglican hymn: some Principals, not too overpowering, little upper harmonics. Weakly heard behind the 64 singers. Some gentle 16' Bourdon at end.- Gustav Holst, a Psalm: a more powerful combination of Principals (this organ having many repeats of them, as you see), still no mixtures. Some stronger 16' at end, maybe the Principal bass. Didn't hear a Bombarde or something similar.

At the end, I watched the 'sacred ritual' of a young technician placing an articulated locking cover over the manuals and stops. He said of the 6-month hard effort to rebuild this organ, together with the Czech original manufacturers, and how they argued for an increase in price for 'hidden defects', and they got it after argument in the Radio director's board.

I attended 3 of the 9 concerts. - French 19th-early 20th repertoire showcased well the power and versatility of this organ, but is certainly an 'acquired taste' and not yet mine. The tutti of this organ can get quite cacophonous when different delays happen.- Martin Schmeiding's recital with various, some less known but very interesting pieces (Anyone knows the Passacaglia by Johann Kaspar Kerll ?). The first noticeable bug - a Spanish Trumpet (en chamade) valve got stuck ON a whole piece until 2 technicians raced to climb inside the chambers on stairs and disable it...Next day I had some small talk with Mr. Schmeiding. He said the delay isn't large (~0.1s), similar to his organ in Germany, and that one gets easily accustomed to it. He took the bug as 'sometimes this just happens anywhere' and a bit funny.- Cluj students with their teachers - again various pieces. An explicit demonstration of stops and their categories. Duet with a smaller positive organ (by Ferdinand Stemmer - Zumikon). A historical reconstruction of portative organ (pan pipe with bellows, as drawn in a medieval engraving) played an early Greensleeves.

There was a recital by veteran guest Georges Athanasiadès with many pieces. Starting "of course" with the well-known BWV565 (Bach Toccata in Dm). Played sharply in time, less rubatos and fermatas than I heard from other organists.

Then, near the end, a powerful reed was added on Manual I [Trompete 16'? Zink 8'?]. It was slow in starting to speak, blended poorly with the principal chorus, and for such a sharp piece, produced the sort of cacophony described above (hearing the bass of the previous note and the treble of the current note ;-)). So it's not French Romantic repertoire to blame, only that it calls more for this kind of reed stop. Definitely not to try anything Baroque or fast with this combination.

The problem may also be with the hall - it being designed to be as 'dead' as possible from the audience to the recording area, and to spread quite evenly the sound (usually string-based orchestra or choir) to the whole hall. For that purpose it's the best in the country - but isn't a church-like setting for a large organ. It may add different delays for different frequencies to back in the hall.

Back on Athanasiadès' recital: he changed very often registrations, aided by the Sequencer foot knob, barely visible when used. Think it passed through almost every stop.As a traveling musician, he may have not had enough time to 'scout' the organ and hall before to prevent the problem.

A more modern bird-song-like piece was a dialogue between the different toned high flutes and mixtures of manuals II,III and IV, some with seventh (1 1/7') component.

It sounded really good ! with many nuances of flutes and horns and principals... each manual having a distinct tonal structure even if the stop names were not so indicative of differences.

I think careful testing before and adapting of registration to real possibilities of THIS organ was the key. Working in Romania ;-) the organist may have been well aware of the unequal condition of any organ, the need to scout and avoid problem stops, also just enough rubato with the harsher reed stops to give them time to sound in the steady state and impress the audience.

The organist looked just as an artist ;-) in the long-tailed coat (to hang behind the bench) and had an assistant looking just like a Man-in-Black, changing registration with sharp accuracy within the musical phrases (based on programs 1-8 + a few changes, pre-planned in the music)

Since last autumn, I just "was in the audience" of a good portion of advanced organ courses at the Conservatory in Bucharest. Professor 1:1 with two students (there were some 'extra' lessons for piano students with secondary organ course). The students were at amazing levels... pieces well practiced before, almost always note-perfect. The main learning consisted in internalizing fine adjustments of timing and phrasing, often <50 milliseconds between student's first try and Professor's intention.

The 2-manual mechanical Conservatory organ, built in 2007, sounds amazing in time-crispness. Loudness isn't too much different between stops, so one always can hear each new stop added, still blending nicely with the others [If some were much more powerful, they would just 'cover' all weaker ones]. The main loudness distinction is between manuals, as I think was intended. Manual I is quite loud (but not extremely) and II noticeably gentler. When accompanying voice, flute etc. only the very sweet Bourdon 8' is enough.

Professor demonstrated at one time the 'continuous' effects of drawing stops partially, or pressing keys partially. Especially weird effects on string-like Gamba and differently-starting sets of pipes (Mixture IV on manual I). Not very reliable musically. Practically to be used On/Off only.

The first time I contributed an idea on using this organ was when a piano student had an 19c English 'Tuba Tune'. First he tried the manual I Trompete 8' - too loud and penetrating and some pipes mistuned [This was seasonal - winter heating drying the wood pipe seats unequally. The bug reversed spontaneously in early summer...]. This Trumpet were more suitable for royal announcements or "The Final Countdown" ;-)

So... back to the only other reed: manual II Oboe 8'. Quite buzzy and 'closed' timbre, far from a real oboe either... but with some extra flute-tone harmonics from Nazard 2 2/3' and Tierce 1 3/5' they sounded just right, a 'synthetic Tuba'.Also, all three 8' stops on manual II drawn together (Bourdon, Salicional, Quintaton 8') make a quite nice "synthetic Principal" - still a bit quieter than manual I Principal 8' alone. Another exquisite combination on II is Bourdon 8', Prestant 4' (which is a bit louder and marks the ensemble, still keeping the 8' fundamental sensation). Good for Baroque music, with distinctive fluty attack-chiffs.

I still hope to improve enough to put hands on this organ, not in another lifetime...

This has now an Ahlborn 2-manual+pedal electronic emulation of a classical organ. Made in 2000 or so. Modern play aids, couplers, stop combinations and presets, foot pistons etc. Sounds over 6 large sound boxes, plus 2 vertical 'column' even larger boxes especially for the pedal stops.

The timbral structure sounds just... German. That is, sampled and purified from German stops. At the bass end there was a lovely Lieblich Posaune 16', supporting but not crushing the sine waves [Subbass 16', Oktavbass 8']. Principal-style and flute tones... only that manual I and manual II principals were almost indistinguishable by timbre.The electronic emulation sounded somewhat more realistic than the older English Wyvern of the Anglican church in Bucharest. That was often too pure and perfect and recognizable as sine-waves. This Ahlborn has more recent effort to emulate real pipes, timbres, attacks, fluctuations, even "wet" samples including a reverb of a hall larger than the cramped real balcony where this organ is installed.